Last night was all about the team. No individuals here. Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Dustin Moseley, Lance Berkman.

Dustin Moseley filled in for an injured A.J. Burnett and helped lead the New York Yankees to a 7-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night.

Mark Teixeira hit his 25th homer, becoming the fourth player to hit at least 25 in each of his first eight big league seasons, and Lance Berkman won over Yankees fans with two doubles.

Jeter broke a tie with The Babe for 39th place on the career hits list with an RBI single in the second inning, his 2,874th hit. Jeter waved his helmet to an standing ovation. Jeter doubled in two runs in the fifth to give New York a 7-1 lead and end Josh Beckett’s night with a Bronx cheer.

(AP photo)

Even A-Rod contributed, becoming just the second (by my count) member of the 600-300 club with his steal.

Beckett allowed seven runs and 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings, and there were some discussions on Twitter whether Beckett is now the Yankees’ Daddy (good bye, Pedro).

In the rotation because Andy Pettitte is on the disabled list with a strained groin, Moseley moved up a day when Burnett tweaked his back throwing on flat ground. In his third start, the right-hander worked the corners with a fastball that rarely exceeded 90 mph and gave up six hits and two runs, including a homer to Hall.

In the second inning, Berkman sent a ball down the right-field line for his first extra-base hit with the Yankees in 23 at-bats. He scored when Hall made a diving stop on Brett Gardner’s groundball but his throw sailed past first base for an error.

Gardner scored on Jeter’s hit to make it 2-0.

Teixeira homered leading off the fifth against Beckett and Berkman followed a walk and hit batter with a one-out RBI doubled down the third-base line to make it 4-1.

Cano was hit twice in the fifth, once by Beckett and again by catcher Kevin Cash, whose throw to third hit him in the helmet as he was diving back to the bag. Cano jumped up and raced home. Jeter added a two-run double to right-center.

Phil Hughes goes for the series win today against Jon Lester at 2:05 p.m.
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Bob Sheppard, the iconic voice of the Yankees for more than 50 years has passed away early this morning, ESPN reports. Sheppard was the Yankees public address announcer at all home games from 1951 to late in the 2007 season when he needed to stop due to health concerns. Sheppard initially wanted to return to the booth at sometime in the future, but officially retired last year after it became clear his health would no longer allow him to.

Sheppard’s voice can still be heard at every home Yankee game. Captain Derek Jeter uses a recorded introduction from Sheppard each time he comes to the plate. Expect that there will be some sort of tribute to the Yankees this season, perhaps a pre-game celebration when the team returns home from the all-star break and a uniform or hat tribute also.

On a personal note, I will never forget hearing that iconic voice when I was a 12 year-old kid at Yankee games. Sheppard truly was the voice of the Yankee game for several generations of Yankees fans who grew up going to see the Bronx Bombers. Reggie Jackson famously called Sheppard’s voice “the voice of God.” He will truly be missed.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau (hat tip to Lohud Yankees Blog) when Mariano Rivera makes his first appearance this season, he, along with Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, will be the first three teammates to have played 16 straight seasons together for one team. That’s HUGE. Congrats to those three awesome guys and the Yankees for making this happen!

The Yankees opened the 2010 season on a good note, hitting back to back home runs to give them a 2-0 lead, which they squandered in the 7th inning and lost to the Boston Red Sox tonight in Fenway Park, 9-7.

CC Sabathia pitched 5.1 innings in his start and his counterpart Josh Beckett struggled, allowing five runs, eight hits, and only struck out one in 4.2 innings. Sabathia had six hits, five runs and four strikeouts.

Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson hit back to back home runs in the second inning, for the first Opening Day back-to-back jacks since 1983. Posada went 3 for 4 on the evening, with two RBIs. That home run was Granderson’s only hit. Robinson Cano came up big tonight, getting two hard-hit balls, going 2 for 5 with one RBI. Everyone in the Yankees’ lineup except Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira had hits. Derek Jeter and Brett Gardner were the only other Yankees to get multiple hits. Jeter went 2 for 5 and Gardner hit .500 with one RBI.

There was one brilliant play in the fourth inning when a double-steal happened when Jeter dashed for second base and Gardner sped home and stole home from third base. That was a payback for Jacoby Ellsbury stealing home last year. Brilliant play by the Yankees there.

While CC Sabathia did not earn the decision tonight, he was good for the first five innings, but outfield mental errors by Brett Gardner gave the Red Sox an opportunity to tie the game. It was Gardner’s first game in left field, but he definitely acted that way, not making good jumps on the ball and at one point missing the cut off man and throwing it past Jorge Posada at catcher.

Granderson, however, made an excellent back-to-wall catch in the second inning and he may be a nice asset for the Yankees in centerfield. Only the rest of the season will tell if he’s a good fit than he was in Comerica Park.

The Yankees’ bullpen imploded after Sabathia exited. David Robertson entered the game and allowed a hit, but it was Chan Ho Park, formerly of the Phillies, that allowed three runs, giving the Red Sox the advantage. Park earned the loss for the Yankees tonight. Joba Chamberlain entered in the 8th inning and wasn’t effective allowing two hits and walking one while throwing 33 pitches for 1.1 innings.

Yes, the Yankees may have lost tonight, but keep in mind the Yankees lost eight straight to open the season against the Red Sox, but look at who won the World Series last year.

Both teams are off tomorrow, and the second game is on Tuesday and it features AJ Burnett vs. Jon Lester.

There is probably no doubt anywhere that Roger Clemens used steroids. As he continues his legal wrangling with his former trainer, Brian McNamee, the Yankees want none of it. However, McNamee has plans to include the Yankees.

According to a story by Nathaniel Vinton in the Daily News, in a brief filed on Friday, McNamee has named a handful of current Yankees as potential witnesses in Clemens’ defamation suit against McNamee.

The Yankees have never relished the destructive defamation suit former pinstripe hero Roger Clemens brought two years ago against his accuser, former Yankee trainer Brian McNamee, but bigger headaches for the club may yet lie ahead according to a new appeals-court brief issued by McNamee’s defense attorneys.

A footnote deep in the 60-page brief lists current Yankee stars Andy Pettitte,Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter as witnesses McNamee might call to the stand for sworn testimony about Clemens’ purported use of steroids and human growth hormone. Also listed among potential witnesses for McNamee is Angela Moyer, an alleged mistress of Clemens who tended bar near the Upper East Side apartment where McNamee said he visited Clemens after Yankee games to inject the pitcher with steroids and human growth hormone (Clemens has testified he thought the syringes contained vitamin B12).

The brief, which McNamee’s attorneys sent Friday to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, portrays Clemens’ defamation suit as nearly dead in the water. It comes in response to Clemens’ appeal of a lower court’s ruling last year that eviscerated the suit, which Clemens first brought against McNamee on Jan. 6, 2008, three weeks after a report by former Senator George Mitchell first publicized McNamee’s accusations. Mitchell was also listed as a potential witness. He and the others could also be summoned to testify as part of a defamation countersuit that McNamee himself brought against Clemens last year in a federal court in Brooklyn — and will likely pursue, at least in order to recover his monumental legal fees.

Right now only the legal system could prevent from having the Yankee players testify. If the courts are convinced with the brief, then this won’t happen.